Initrd is not gzip archive

[Tim Ritberg]

The seems to be an error in the intel_microcode hook for initramfs update.
This breaks the initrd:

# file /boot/initrd.img-3.19.0-18-generic
/boot/initrd.img-3.19.0-18-generic: ASCII cpio archive (SVR4 with no CRC)

This is not the expected gzip file. I am not sure now, whether my system is bootable.

Edit /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/intel_microcode. Put an "exit" right after the comment header.
This will disable the hook and generate a gzipped cpio archive.

Xubuntu 15.04
initramfs-tools 0.103ubuntu15

I also checked an AMD-maschine. No Problems with the initrd.

[Tim Ritberg (xpert-reactos)]

Is related to: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=760765

But I still think, this s a bad way to update an initramfs.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Andy Whitcroft (apw)]

This is a correctly formed initramfs. An innitramfs is not simply a compressed cpio archive, it is a set of cpio segments which may optionally be compressed. lsinitramfs should correctly show the combined form.

[Klee Dienes (klee-p)]

I came across this while running 15.04 on a Gryphon Z97 mainboard.

I understand what you are saying about the cpio segments, and the initrd seems to be in the correct format, but the kernel isn't recognizing it on boot. So it fails to load the SATA drivers and can't find the root filesystem.

I also noticed that lsinitramfs doesn't show the combined form. If I copy the initrd over to my debian machine running 0.120 it appears to be properly formed.